Page 6 DTH Omnibus
Thursday April 4, 1991
MUSIC
ViXYC
1. Csat Happening
Dreamy
2. Buttsteak
Fattys Got More Blood
3. Shorten Knife
Pretty Little Baka Guy
4. Bob !,!arley
Talkirf Blues
5. Various Artists
Bottles, Knives, and Steel
6. f.lstal Flska Mather
7 r-inch single
7. Gang Starr
Step In The Arena
8. Various Artists
-Country Classics Vol. I
9. Fats Waller
His Last Years
1C. Thatcher On Acid
Frank
POP
1.
Marian Carey
Mariah Carey
C&C Music Factory
Go773 Make You Sweat
Sting
The Soul Cages
Wilson Phillips
Wilson Phillips
The Clack Crowes
Shake Your Money Maker
Vanilla Icq
To The Extreme
Cloria Estefan
Into The Light
Chris isaak
Heart Shaped World
Whitney Houston
2.
3.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
I'm Your Baby Tonight
10. M.C. Hammer
Fte amner Do?' Wtrf 'Et?
En&oard
OMNIBUS
'Vr'MPMW'Ml- I
Metal: you've come a long way, baby
i r-n eavy metal.
1J Just think, 10 years ago
true heavy metal didn't ex-
jl ist. The punk movement was
-J LJ winding down and guitar
lovers needed a remedy from new wave
music. Bands like Iron Maiden, Def
Leppard, Quiet Riot, Ratt and Dokken
started metal. The music took the
guitar of classic rock and cranked it
up. In 1983, Metallica burst onto the
scene with the loudest sound yet and
metal was here to stay.
Like most new forms of music,
metal has had its share of controversy.
From suicide trials to satanism accu
sations, metal has had a hard time.
Since then, metal has changed and
groups have come and gone, but that
central power is still there. Today,
metal can be divided into two catego
ries; power or thrash metal (Metallica,
Prong) noted for its chunky guitar
sound and fast tempo, and hard rock
or pop metal, (Skid Row, Babylon
A.D.) which is not as hard and has a
wider audience. Of course, bands can
cross between the two.
As we plunge headlong into the
'90s, metal continues to grow and
change. There are four recent releases
that exemplify the course that heavy
metal could take over the next de
cade. Fear of God
Within the Veil
Warner Bros.
oo
Fear of God isanL.A.-basedgroup
that probably thought they had a good
gimmick going. Take three guys who
can play power metal and add a female
vocalist.
It might have worked if the girl
could sing. I mean, I wasn't expecting
Pavarotti, but this girl sounds like
Mercedes McCambridge, who did the
voice for Regan in The Exorcist.
" On their debut album, Within the
Veil, the guys crank out some really
cool music, but all vocalist (and I use
the term loosely) Dawn Crosby does
is wail and moan. She sounds as if she
is dying. There are two tracks, "Emily"
and "Wasted Time," where Crosby
attempts to sing within human audio
,,,vs Cbapel.Hillf 967,4720 . , v
300-B W Rotemary St.
range, making these pretty good songs.
Despite the obvious flaw, the album
has an original mix, with distorted
voices flowing through the songs,
giving the music an eerie quality. It's
great for bands to experiment and I'm
all for women in metal, but a little
more thought should have gone into
this project. This album should have
been all instrumental, or the group
should get a new vocalist.
I, Napoleon
I, Napoleon
Geffen Records
oooo
1, Napoleon is a new hard rock
band that has done its homework. On
their eponymous debut album, they
display a great grasp of melody. Singer
songwriter Steve Napoleon (yeh,
right) has obviously studied other hard
rock hits to come up with a good
musical formula.
To put it simply, the music of I,
Napoleon is not original, it is not
new, it is not groundbreaking, but it is
well done.
The album is split into two sides.
Side day focuses on the good side of
love. Songs like "Perfect Absolution"
and "Go to Pieces" have great hooks
and melodies. Side night deals with
the darker side of love. Tunes such as
"Whipped Silly" and "I Am the Idiot"
stand out, but the brooding acoustic
number "Feels Like Suicide" is the
highlight of the album. The album
ends with a piano concerto by Napo
leon. I, Napoleon may not offer us
anything startingly new, but they
don't disgrace the sound they are pay
ing homage to.
Saison Kick
Saigon Kick
Atlantic Records
OOP 12
Saigon Kick is the latest discovery
by master producer Michael
Wagener. In the past, Wagener has
worked with Dokken, Metallica,
White Lion and Skid Row. If
Wagener works with a group, they're
SWING
after the
Q o A
late nite menu
sandwiches
olive bread
desserts
going to be promising, and Saigon
Kick is headed in the right direction.
Their debut album presents us with a
group that, like Jane's Addiction, is
capable of producing several sounds.
Their sounds include psychedelic
Zen rock ("New World"), angry Sex
Pistols-inspired rock ("What Do You
Do"), Beatle-esque pop ("My Life"),
power metal ("Month of Sundays")
and acoustic rock ("Come Take Me
Now"). The problem with the album
is that the songs are short (averaging
three 12 minutes), and even with the
group's diverse sound, it gets monoto
nous. Still, it's refreshing to see a band
trying to break the mold of metal and
it's great to see a famous producer take
a chance with a young band.
Wrathchild America
3-D
Atlantic Records
OOOO
When Wrathchild America de
buted in 1989, they made me feel
really good about the future of power
metal. They were loud, fast, hard and
progressive. Progressive to the point
of doing a faithful version of Pink
Floyd's "Time." Now Wrathchild
America is back with a new album
entiled 3-D, and things are really get
ting weird. How weird? There is a
banjo used on this album. Sure, some
of the songs like "3-D Man" and "Sur
rounded by Idiots" are straight-ahead
power metal, but some songs break all
of the rules of metal. This album
contains country, honky-tonk, clas
OMNIBUS
We've done so much with so little for so
long, we are now experts at doing
anything
J ' s- s
sical and reggae.
Reggae?! On a metal album?! What
were they thinking? Well, whatever
they were thinking, it works. These
guys from Virginia knew full well that
this album would either be called
junk or genius. It turns out to be
genius. The highlights of the album
are two six-minute-plus songs,
"Draintime" and "Desert Grins",
which leave the listener exhausted
from all of the tempo changes. There
is a song based on the books of Tho
mas (Silence of die Lambs) Harris and
a song based on the movie Hellraiser.
Wrathchild America went out on a
limb and found their nut.
From the examples stated here, it
seems that metal will continue to
flourish in the '90s. New bands will
take the work of their successors and
add to it. Groups like Wrathchild
America will attempt to cross musical
boundaries and groups like Fear of
God will use today's technology to
improve their sound. And with the
world looking forward to Metallica's
new 12-track album being released
soon, the future of metal looks very
stable.
I realize that a lot of people wish
that metal would go away. I have bad
news it won't.
Mike Long
forget it
CO wait for a bargain bin buy
COO tape it from a friend
0009 buy it
C33Q0 buy two copies
with nothing
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